Stay
by sternenacht
Summary: Jeff has to go. Tony just wants him to stay. Mentions Jefftony, but it’s minor.


Soft white flakes drift down around Tony and Jeff as they stroll through the Snow Wood grounds, and they do not stray from the brick paths laid out for them. There is only one pair of gloves between the two. It doesn't matter, though, as they each have one, and Tony laces his bare hand into Jeff's. Frozen fingers find warmth in one another, the flush on Jeff's face erupting from the tips of his ears all the way down his neck. Both of their hearts are about to pound out of their chests, but neither of them care. The other boy bites his lip in the way he always does when preparing to say something he'll regret, then opened his mouth and breathed out a "Tony," before the dream shatters in a hailstorm of discordant cacophony.

Tony jolted upright and immediately regretted it, pupils dilating in the harsh yellow light of his shared room. Why were the lamps on? Outside the windows were only stars, left brilliant by the lack of pollution all the way off the beaten path. Bleary-eyed, Tony kicked his sheets off. A familiar beanpole darted about the room like it was on fire. "Ah, I had a dream that you and I were taking a walk." His voice came out laced with sleep. Jeff fumbled to button his day shirt, glasses still off and fly down in his haste to get… wherever he was going. A man possessed, he paused, blinking down at Tony and looking right through him. His face shone bright.

"I have to go," Jeff said dumbly, swearing under his breath as shaky hands missed their mark on the top button of his shirt.

"Wh-"

"They need me. I have to go to Threed."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ness and Paula, they're-they're trapped. She called to me. They're friends I haven't met before." At last the button slipped through the hole and Jeff grimaced in triumph before stuffing his hem into his pants then advanced into the hallway.

Tony didn't lag behind him for long, darting back to swipe Jeff's glasses from their spot on the bedside table and yoink his blazer off of the back of his desk chair where he always threw it after a long day. "Why are you running off? It's the middle of the night, surely they're not in so much danger that you have to leave with your fly down?" Their open door illuminated a slice of otherwise night-black hallway. Half of Jeff hid in the shadows. "And you're forgetting these!" he cried, fingers closing around a too-skinny wrist. "Please, stop and listen to me! Storming off without a jacket or your glasses? What are you thinking?"

Jeff did not pull away and instead squinted at him like he was considering, but Tony knew better, and wordlessly passed him the lenses. He muttered an inaudible thanks and slid them on, squint remedied. "I can't wait. The longer I hesitate, the more danger they're in. Lives are at stake here."

So the egghead had finally cracked like the older kids said he would. Tony had half a mind to not take no for an answer and put him back to bed. Maybe he'd had a weird dream, kind of like Tony, and had been up so late that he could no longer distinguish reality from blurry-edged fiction? In the dark, Tony could not read Jeff. "Is there anything I can say that will get you to stay?" He already knew the answer.

"No."

"Then let's go to Maxwell and make that trip a little less risky, yeah?"

Jeff yanked on his blazer and let Tony lead the way. It didn't take long to get what they needed, even as he dragged his feet to try and slow the other. He found himself praying that testy, mercurial, Jeff would change his heart and return back to the safety of the dormitory. As they stood in the entryway where the grand oak doors couldn't stop the glacial creeping cold from leeching the heat from the walls or forcing its way through cracks in the floorboards, he stood firm. This was not a childish whim, and that was what scared Tony the most. Jeff would run out into the snow and die without so much as a thought of returning. "Hey," he said, and the genius paused in his tracks, "Your tie isn't done right."

Tony offered a weak smile as he fixed the knot. "You've got to be looking your best while you save the world." The pull to confess dug its nails into his heart, but every time he worked up the courage to speak, the toy gun in Jeff's hands shot his tongue down. Instead, out came, "so this is goodbye?"

"That implies we'll never meet again," he shot a crooked, insecure, gap-toothed smile from the wrong side of bitter metal prison bars. Jeff had some friends to meet. "And I'll come back once I'm done. But for now, others need me." His own 'I love you' went unsaid and Tony was all too aware of its absence. He climbed over the fence, gave one last wave, then disappeared between the frosted trees.

He stood there watching, waiting, and hoping (for what, he didn't know) until one of the older boys dragged him back inside by the collar of his now snow-soaked pajama shirt.


End file.
